🖤A Closer Look at the Four Members’ Visual Designs🖤
đź–¤The Four Figures I Discovered Through Their Voicesđź–¤
This time, I’d like to talk about the visual side of MAJOLICAMAIDEN.
When MAJOLICAMAIDEN began, I also stopped working as a creator under my own name. Because of that, describing my work on the project now as something “I designed” feels a little strange to me.
Of course, I have absolutely no problem with credits that say “Character Design: curomismiumiu.”
There isn’t really any other way to put it, after all.
But what I want to talk about today is a little different from a typical breakdown of the outfits or color palettes.
Things I noticed while drawing the four of them.
Shapes and colors I naturally found myself choosing as I listened to their voices.
And the little rules of my own that I discovered after drawing them again and again.
I’d like to share these things with you, one by one.
As a creator, I find it more enjoyable to discover a character’s individuality through observation than to decide every detail of their personality and background from the start.
The same goes for their appearances. I begin drawing with a general image in mind, but their designs often change along the way to better suit their voices and the people I’m discovering them to be.
Not every decorative detail had a meaning from the beginning. In fact, sometimes I only figure out why I drew something after I’ve already drawn it.
For me, drawing these four is also time spent discovering sides of them I haven’t met yet.
đź–¤When Voices Have Colors and Shapesđź–¤
First, I’d like to tell you a little about the way I experience things.
For as long as I can remember, letters and sounds have sometimes brought colors to mind or made me think of particular smells.
I only recently learned the word “synesthesia,” and it made me wonder whether my own experiences might be something similar.
That said, I haven’t had any kind of professional assessment.
I’m bringing it up here simply to explain how I usually experience sounds and written characters.
As a child, I never thought there was anything unusual about these sensations.
Just as school subjects seem to have their own colors, I assumed everyone naturally associated things with colors in everyday life.
I also sometimes hear a single note or voice as though it has several layers.
Some voices seem to consist of just an outline and a core, while others feel as though they’re divided into three or four layers. Each layer has something like its own texture, weight, and temperature.
Ever since I was little, I’ve loved imagining musical instruments as people and inventing personalities from the sounds I hear.
The four members of MAJOLICAMAIDEN are deeply connected to those experiences.
Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone imagines the same colors or the same people when they hear a voice.
I create their designs through my own interpretation of what I hear and feel in their voices.
Some of the reasons behind the colors and shapes I’m introducing here were intentional from the very beginning. Others are things I only realized later.
I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the four of them with both kinds of discoveries in mind.
đź–¤The Four of Them, Side by Side: Their Heightsđź–¤
Before I get into their individual designs, let's start with how tall they are.
Meiji is 170 cm, Bibi is 172 cm, Wistaria is 177 cm, and Momo is 190 cm.
Seeing the numbers lined up like that, they're all pretty tall, aren't they?
That said, I didn't simply match their heights to the pitch of their voices. It's not a case of a low voice meaning someone must be tall, or a high voice meaning they must be petite.
These are the heights I arrived at by imagining the people I heard in their voices, right down to their body sizes and the way they stand.
Meiji is the shortest of the four, but she's still 170 cm tall.
To me, that doesn't feel like an exceptionally tall height. I chose it because it felt natural for her.
Bibi is 172 cm.
She's a little taller than Meiji, but depending on her clothes and silhouette, she can sometimes look like the smallest of the four.
Wistaria is 177 cm.
She's the tallest of the women, and her long hair and the vertical lines of her outfits can make her look especially tall.
And then there's Momo at 190 cm.
When he stands beside the three women, the difference in his sheer size is obvious.
But I don't want to draw him as some kind of towering giant.
I chose this height because it lets him look big and dependable while still standing naturally alongside the other three.
Of course, their shoes and outfits change how they look when they're standing together. Meiji, for one, wears some seriously high platform heels.
The height differences that numbers alone can't capture are an important part of how I draw the four of them, too.
🤍A Gentle Witch and a White Flower🤍
Meiji Gahata.
Meiji is the one I've known the longest out of the four. Her outfits and expressions have changed since her debut.
She used to have a sleek look, built around darker colors and relatively few embellishments. These days, her outfits are more like something out of a fairy tale, with white and ivory as their main colors.
I don't see this change as her becoming a different person.
Meiji is still the same witch.
I just wanted her to be happy. I wanted people to see her not only as an evil witch, but also as a girl who dreams of happiness for herself.
That wish is woven into the white outfit she wears now.
White clothing can evoke images of happiness, like brides and princesses. But dressing her entirely in white doesn't mean I want to erase everything eerie about her.
Take her eyes, for example.
Meiji’s eyes are pink, to put it simply. But I don’t draw them as just plain pink.
I use gray around the edges of her irises because I want to leave a hint of shadow rather than make them nothing but sweet pink. Her pupils are vertical, like a cat’s, and her slightly downturned eyes have a somewhat sleepy look.
Her eyelashes are lavender, and the clustered strands look almost like thorns. Since the color is close to her hair, I sometimes imagine that her lashes might naturally be that shade. I have a feeling her hair might be its natural color too, but that’s still just my imagination.
When I draw Meiji, I want a little something frightening to remain in her otherwise pretty face.
If someone looks at her and thinks, “Her eyes are scary,” I’d actually be pretty delighted.
She is a witch, after all.
I feel something similar about her singing voice. It has a clearly defined outline, yet it feels soft on the inside. Perhaps her face is much the same.
Her eyes and lashes have distinct shapes, but there’s something hazy about her expression. It seems as though she’s looking right at you, and yet her gaze never quite meets yours.
To me, that strange sense of distance is part of what makes Meiji’s face feel like hers.
I made a similar discovery with her hair.
Drawing little curls at the ends of hair was already part of my own illustration style. But whenever I draw Meiji’s hair, I can’t help seeing a rose.
A gradient that shifts from pale white and lavender to deep pink. Colors changing like flower petals. And curls spiraling at the ends of her hair.
I didn't set out to make her hair look like roses from the beginning, but it's become an important part of her visual design.
The white roses at her chest also carry traces of her past.
Meiji once slept inside a coffin.
The bouquet of white roses is a reminder of that time. You might even see it as a parting bouquet laid beside a coffin.
There are customs that discourage using flowers with thorns, but I have no idea how much human convention applies to her.
I just wanted to give her flowers she likes.
Her white outfit carries my wish for her happiness.
And yet, right there at her chest is a bouquet that brings a coffin to mind.
Happiness and an unsettling feeling exist side by side.
Her accessories have changed over time, too.
She once wore a ring that brought a demon to mind. Now, on the middle finger of her left hand, she wears a delicate cotton-pearl ring.
Somehow, it looks a little like a gift from someone.
Could it have been a gift from Momo?
I feel like he might hesitate to give her a ring out of the blue, worried it would come across as a little too serious. But if Meiji told him she wanted one, I can imagine him buying it for her.
Of course, neither the person who gave it to her nor the act of giving it has been established. This is just my imagination.
And then there's her hooded poncho.
The shape brings Little Red Riding Hood to mind, but with her current white outfit, she's more like Little White Riding Hood.
The oversized hood and flared hem give her a triangular silhouette that looks right at home in a fairy tale.
Her height of 170 cm feels like a natural fit for this look, too.
She's not an impossibly tiny girl. She has enough physical presence to feel grounded in the real world.
And yet, when she's wrapped up in that outfit, she takes on an almost dreamlike cuteness.
I picture her as relatively slender.
Perhaps that's because her voice sounds less broad and forceful to me, and more like something with fine, delicate contours.
That doesn't mean I'm simply translating the impression of her voice into body measurements.
It's just the build I naturally settled on as I kept drawing her.
By the way, she claims to be sixteen, but her actual age is unknown.
She does seem to remember being sixteen, though.
Looking at her like this, I realize Meiji isn't simply drawn to be a cute girl.
She's adorable, but a little unsettling. Her white outfit carries a wish for happiness, yet traces of her coffin remain.
I love her for those contradictions.
đź©·Wearing Her Own Kind of Cuteđź©·
Bibi Jyougasaki.
I had a fairly clear direction for Bibi's appearance from quite early on.
But it didn't start with fashion. It started with recording her voice.
Bibi and Wistaria came into being as Meiji's friends shortly before Meiji went to sleep. At first, I imagined them taking on the lower and higher vocal ranges, respectively, compared with Meiji.
Bibi was the one who would sing lower.
While recording her voice, I practiced Kumi Koda's “Ningyo-hime” over and over, trying to get closer to the low register I had in mind.
I wasn't simply aiming for a voice that could hit low notes. I wanted a deep, gritty sound that seemed to drop right into my chest.
The way I hear it, even the lower layers that make up her voice needed to sit firmly down there. Getting that texture right was difficult.
Even now, when I'm adjusting the weight of the four members' voices, Bibi is the one I have to be most careful with.
If I'm not paying attention, the lower layers I hear in her voice don't quite sink all the way into my chest, and the whole sound ends up feeling too light.
And that experience from recording her voice found its way into Bibi's outfit, too.
Her bottoms incorporate details that remind me of a mermaid's tail fin.
A high slit and long vertical lines that follow the shape of her legs.
The color gradients also draw on the beauty of a mermaid’s tail fin.
That doesn’t mean Bibi herself is a mermaid-themed character.
A little trace of my search for her singing voice has simply found its way into her outfit.
Back in her UTAU days, though, Bibi’s voice had a more casual feel than it does now.
There were some similarities to Meiji’s voice, but to me, Bibi sounded more like a woman you might actually meet out in the city.
Urban and down-to-earth. A little languid, as though she were walking along at her own pace.
That impression led me to bring casual fashion into her outfit.
At the time, the casual style I had in mind was rockabilly.
A cropped biker jacket, with a few touches inspired by Japan’s rebellious yankii fashion.
Then I layered on a neon-nightlife color palette and Bibi’s own gyaru flair.
Her outfit brings together fashion from several different eras and styles.
But I don’t feel the need to force it into a single category.
I want her to look like someone who chooses what she likes and wears it because she wants to.
Her face has its own distinctly Bibi features, too.
Of the four, Bibi is the only woman with upturned eyes. Her eyeliner also flicks upward at the outer corners.
To me, those eyes reflect the slightly bold edge and urban feel I hear in her voice.
Her irises are lime green, with pink pupils.
I wanted her eyes to have the vivid colors and clearly defined edges of colored contact lenses with an outer ring.
The contrast between those colors suits her striking, glamorous features, too.
I draw Bibi’s bangs so that they form a heart shape.
Depending on how they’re drawn, straight-across bangs can make a character look quite young. But with Bibi, I feel they blend naturally into her own particular kind of cuteness rather than making her look childish.
Maybe it’s because of her striking eyes and the way she styles herself. Even with such a sweet little motif, she still looks unmistakably like Bibi.
Her hair has strong waves, and I think a voluminous, tightly waved style like a Japanese “sauvage” perm would suit her, too.
Still, I imagine those waves are less her natural hair texture and more the result of carefully styling her hair with a curling iron every day.
Perhaps her hair isn’t especially long because bleaching and heat styling have damaged the ends, leaving them prone to breakage.
When I think of it that way, even her hairstyle seems to reflect Bibi’s everyday life and her personal sense of beauty.
Her eyelashes are a deep purple.
Keeping them in the same color family as her hair would create a natural sense of harmony, but I wanted a little more contrast around Bibi’s eyes.
I can imagine her actually wearing black mascara or false lashes.
Just because her eyelashes are purple in my illustrations doesn’t mean I’ve established that she uses purple mascara.
And then there’s the beauty mark near her mouth. That’s another detail I imagined from her voice.
It wasn’t something I originally thought of as a natural beauty mark, though.
There’s something so cute about a woman who admires Marilyn Monroe and draws on a beauty mark of her own, don’t you think? That was where the idea came from.
I still haven’t decided whether Bibi’s beauty mark is natural or something she draws on with makeup.
So when I forget to draw it, I sometimes think, “Maybe she just didn’t put it on today.”
I do add it as soon as I notice, though.
I think about her hair color in much the same way.
Pink and lilac are her usual colors, but that doesn’t mean she always has the same inner color. She might go for contrasting roots some days, or change the colors whenever she feels like it.
Bibi is a woman who chooses the colors she likes for herself. Maybe there’s no need to fix even her hair color too rigidly.
What color does she feel like wearing today? What does she want to put on? I can imagine her setting the mood for her day with little decisions like those.
Even though she and Momo both have pink hair, I get the feeling they approach it differently.
Based on my own experience and the way I picture them, Bibi’s vivid pink seems a little easier to maintain as it fades than Momo’s cotton-candy pink.
In my experience, deeper colors really are easier to deal with.
Bibi might choose “cute and easy,” while Momo would choose “cute, even if it’s a hassle.”
I even find myself imagining differences like that.
A lot of her accessories are things I only recognized as her personal taste after drawing them, too.
I can picture her liking one big, statement earring that really stands out.
I’ve also drawn piercings on her navel and around her décolletage. I hadn’t mapped out exactly where she would have piercings from the start. When I drew her showing a little more skin for a music video, I just thought, “That would look cute right there,” and added them.
They felt right, so now I can imagine her actually wearing them.
I can even picture Bibi asking Momo to do a body piercing for her.
But I suspect he’d be reluctant to put a hole in her body himself and would recommend a professional piercing studio instead.
I sometimes imagine exchanges like that, but I haven’t established them as things that actually happened.
As for the idea that tattoos would suit both of them, that’s still just an impression for now.
Her nail designs feature patterns inspired by each of her vocal modes.
She has her favorites, like leopard print, but I imagine she'd switch things up depending on her mood.
Nail extensions are another little touch of glamour that feels unmistakably Bibi.
She's 172 cm tall.
Looking at the number alone, she's a fairly tall woman. But when the four of them stand together, the balance of their outfits can sometimes make her look like the shortest.
Meiji has her oversized hood and towering platform heels, while Wistaria's long hair and outfits create a striking vertical silhouette.
And then there's Momo, who's 190 cm tall to begin with.
Bibi isn't short at all, but she can look relatively compact next to the other three.
I also picture her with a slender build. I don't know whether she's naturally slim or works to maintain the figure she likes. Either way, she seems particular about looking the way she wants to look right now.
Maybe she goes to the gym and gets a tan while she's at it.
Sometimes I find myself giving her skin a slightly warmer, redder tone each time I draw her. I also imagine her under neon lights or other kinds of lighting, so I don't want to pin her skin tone down to one exact shade.
I've even been asked, "So what color is her skin, exactly?" But I don't think it has to look the same every time.
I like the way she comes across, too.
She wears the clothes she loves, and she knows what makes her feel cute. I think the way she carries herself is enough to give her a presence that's unmistakably Bibi.
đź’šAn Unfathomable Beauty Born from a Sweet Voiceđź’š
Wistaria Toujoh.
My impression of Wistaria changed quite a bit between recording her voice and hearing the finished result.
Originally, I was aiming for a voice that was higher and more childlike than Meiji’s. But when I heard the finished voice, I found myself picturing someone different from the person I’d imagined.
It certainly is a high voice. And there’s a lovely sweetness to it.
Yet when I listen closely, I feel that hers is the most mature-sounding voice of the three women. There’s a mysterious sense of maturity to it that pitch alone can’t explain.
That impression led me to draw Wistaria not as a child, but as an adult woman.
She’s 177 cm tall, making her the tallest of the three women. Her long hair and the vertical lines of her outfits can make her look even taller.
But I’m not trying to draw her as simply a tall, intimidating woman. She has the beauty of an adult woman, yet there’s something about her that feels unlike an ordinary human being. I think that strange quality comes through in her body and the way she carries herself, too.
Even though her voice is high, I always hear a steady weight in it.
Perhaps that's why I picture her with the full, graceful curves of a goddess statue or a beauty in a classical painting.
A high voice doesn't necessarily mean a light sound or a small figure. That combination feels distinctly Wistaria to me.
I have a feeling that all that long hair is her natural hair, too.
But if she told me, “I dye it to match my natural hair color~,” I’m not sure I’d even be surprised.
What would be the point of that?
At the same time, little flashes of childlike expression remain in her singing voice. That’s why I haven’t made every part of her design solemn and mature.
Playful elements like polka dots, and details that make her look a little younger. I’ve included those touches so that her sweetness and eeriness can appear side by side.
There’s something curious about her face, too.
If anything, she has gentle-looking, downturned eyes. She isn’t glaring at anyone through sharply upturned eyes.
And yet, somehow, she’s a little frightening.
Her eyes are violet, accented with fluorescent yellow. This is another color combination I chose for its striking contrast.
Her eyelashes are lime green. Her eyes may look soft, but take a closer look at each color, and you’ll find there’s nothing ordinary about them.
Lime-green lipstick, too.
It isn’t makeup meant to make her complexion look healthier in the usual sense. It’s a color chosen according to her own sense of beauty.
When I draw Wistaria, I’m not trying to make her frightening by giving her a scary expression. Even when she smiles gently, you still can’t quite tell what she’s thinking. I want that unsettling feeling to remain.
I’ve made a similar discovery with her outfit. Its overall silhouette is somewhat reminiscent of a nun’s habit, but I never originally imagined her as a nun.
It was only after I designed the outfit that I realized it looked that way. Some people have even wondered whether she might be a former nun.
Sistaria, perhaps? That could be fun.
But whether she actually has a past as a nun is still undecided. I enjoy the ideas her outfit inspires, but I try not to turn them straight into established character lore.
Her heels are a little unusual, too.
Don't they remind you of Egyptian architecture or an ancient temple?
There's something imposing about them, with an almost religious air. I think that quality makes her feel even more uncanny.
What exactly is she, anyway?
I don't know either.
And then there’s the golden hand at her chest.
It's said to have belonged to her late older sister.
Some of her other accessories are gold, too.
The ring on her right index finger has such a presence that I can't help imagining it's solid gold.
I haven't decided what it's actually made of, but for some reason, expensive-looking things just suit her.
Her earrings look like old vintage pieces to me, too.
I wonder if they might even be keepsakes left behind by someone who passed away.
I haven't decided anything like that, yet somehow everything she wears looks as though it has a mysterious history.
And then there are her gloves, which are different colors on each hand.
Only the right one is violet, and for some reason, it looks like the hand she'd use to handle poison.
Of course, that isn't an established part of her character.
When it comes to death as a theme, I feel that Wistaria has a sensibility that can't be explained by conventional sadness alone.
For example, I can easily imagine the vivid, celebratory imagery of Mexico's Day of the Dead suiting her beautifully.
But I still don't know how she herself thinks about death, or what she considers beautiful.
And I'm perfectly happy with that.
I don't want Wistaria to be a woman whose every detail can be explained.
When I'm drawing her face or outfit, I'll sometimes find myself thinking, "This color suits her," or "This shape just feels right," even though I can't explain why.
Sometimes I discover the meaning later. Other times, I never find an explanation at all.
I treasure the time I spend gradually getting to know her as I draw.
đź’śA Big Frame and a Sweet Faceđź’ś
Momo Kissme.
Momo is a man who was born from a different kind of voice than the three girls. From the first time I heard him, I could hear a distinctive sweetness in his voice.
His lower register has a rich, masculine fullness. In his higher range, though, his voice opens up with a kind of emotional brightness, and there’s still a hint of unguarded sincerity around the edges.
That voice made me imagine someone a little different from the usual cool, aloof male character.
Handsome. Alluring.
But somehow, a little adorable, too.
That impression helped shape the face Momo has today.
He’s 190 cm tall, with a large, solidly built frame. When all four stand together, he’s clearly the biggest.
I picture him getting his tan at a tanning salon.
He has a sturdy build, but I don’t draw him with the kind of muscles you’d associate with a bodybuilder. Perhaps there’s something closer to an athlete’s physique beneath his clothes.
As I keep adding vocal modes for him, I’m amazed that a single person can have more than ten different vocal colors, so distinct they almost sound like separate personalities.
While I struggle to fine-tune the weight of Bibi’s voice, Momo seems to handle those shifts with relative ease.
He has the effortless air of someone who can lift something heavy as though it weighs nothing.
I think that quality in his voice also helped lead me toward his large, reassuring physique.
Still, I don’t want him to look intimidating simply because he’s big.
When he stands beside someone he cares about, I want him to look dependable. At the same time, I want him to have an endearing charm of his own, something that makes him feel approachable.
That balance is important to me.
I think it comes through especially clearly in his face.
His eyes turn down at the outer corners, while his eyebrows slant upward. There’s a little strength in his brows, even though his eyes have a gentle, drooping shape.
And his facial features are set slightly farther apart.
His facial features are quite striking, but I draw his eyes to look delicate and lightly pigmented.
I use gray as the base, layered with lavender. In some illustrations, I switch the colors of the base and the pupils.
His eyelashes are blue-toned. That was another color that simply felt natural with his facial features.
There’s a gentle sweetness to his voice, so I didn’t want his eyes to look too intense.
And that sweetness shows in his lips, too.
I draw Momo's lips to look soft.
His voice is deep and full, yet there's something sweet and gentle about it. I wanted to carry that quality through to his mouth as well.
And then I gave those soft-looking lips a piercing.
Even though they look so soft.
Just because he has a sweet face doesn't mean all his accessories have to be gentle, too.
Strong brows and gentle eyes. A glint of slightly rugged metal against lips that look soft. His body is big, but there's still something youthful about his face.
That combination of strength and cuteness gives him a certain youngest-child-like charm, at least to me.
Momo knows how to look cool. He can pull off flashy clothes, and I can easily imagine him carrying himself with confidence onstage.
But I don't want to portray him as a man who's perfectly composed and putting on a cool front all the time.
When he smiles or gets a little embarrassed, I imagine a more straightforward side of him coming through. As if the sweetness in his voice is showing on his face, too.
That's the kind of man I try to draw.
His pink hair is another thing I find myself thinking about.
Maybe his hair used to be black. I haven't even decided whether its current color is natural.
The back is clipped short, and the rest of his hair is straight. If he gets it heavily bleached over and over, perhaps he avoids perms to keep the damage to a minimum.
Keeping such a beautiful, pale shade of pink takes quite a bit of work. I imagine he'd look after it himself with color-depositing treatments and the like, rather than leaving everything to the salon.
But he likes that color, so he takes care to maintain it.
He loves it, even when it's a hassle.
That's another little glimpse of his capacity for love that I find myself imagining through his hair.
His outfit reflects his personality, too.
The pink-and-purple blouson has a shape reminiscent of a coach jacket.
But it isn't simply streetwear.
Its silhouette spreads outward to suit his large frame, with embellishments that bring a fashion show to mind.
The asymmetrical wide-leg trousers are another way of keeping his wardrobe from being limited to conventionally masculine clothing.
I want him to wear cute things because he finds them cute, and cool things because he finds them cool.
Pink, frills, and rugged pieces might all simply be part of the fashion he loves.
Just because he's a big man doesn't mean he has to stick to dark colors or conventionally masculine clothes.
But that doesn't mean he only likes cute things, either.
Sweet colors and cool clothes. He can wear both just as naturally.
I really love that about his style.
His nails are part of that, too.
Why shouldn't boys get to have cute nails?
Bibi wears nail extensions, but at Momo's length, I picture his as natural nails.
Right now, they're painted a solid fuchsia, with a soft-square shape.
I think the not-too-sweet color and slightly angular shape look really cool.
He probably has to be mindful of their length now and then in everyday life, but that's all part of the fashion he's chosen for himself.
He also wears several black metal rings on his fingers.
Those things have got to be heavy, right? His fingers must be taking a serious beating.
There's a little detail in the pattern on his jacket, too.
At first glance, it looks like leopard print, but look closely and you'll see that the spots are actually shaped like hearts.
Even in a bold, tough-looking pattern, there's a little motif of love hidden away. It feels very much like him.
And then there are all the piercings in his ears and lips.
What really catches my attention are the three expanders in just one ear. They're meant to stretch piercing holes.
What exactly is he planning to do to that ear?
And I still haven't even managed to keep track of all his piercings. There might be more to come.
He's getting even more?
Looking at all these accessories, I can't help imagining that he might have been a little more of a troublemaker in the past.
Of course, I still don't know what his life was actually like back then.
But alongside his sweet face and warm, friendly singing voice, this slightly rougher style looks perfectly natural on him.
I'm curious about those sides of him I haven't discovered yet.
And then there’s the pale teal I used for his inner layer.
It’s lighter and softer than a typical teal, so I call this shade “Ice Teal.”
There are two other phrases tucked into that name, too, because they sound similar.
“I steal you.”
I want to steal you away.
“I still love you.”
I still love you, even now.
The slightly forceful desire to draw someone you love closer, toward yourself.
And the feeling of continuing to cherish them, even when things don’t go your way.
To me, Momo’s way of loving has room for both.
Of course, loving someone so much that you want to steal them away doesn’t mean you can ignore what they want.
What he really wants is for that person to choose, of their own free will, to stay by his side.
“I want to steal you away” and “I still love you.”
One is his own desire. The other is his unwavering affection for someone else.
It’s the fact that both exist together that feels so very Momo to me.
Ice Teal, a name carrying both of those phrases, is a light, pale teal that I’ve paired with the vivid pink and purple of his outfit.
Among all those vibrant colors, this shade seems to give the outfit a slightly softer expression.
I really love this combination of colors and words.
A big frame and flashy fashion.
Strong-looking brows and sweet, gentle eyes.
His design brings together all sorts of contrasting elements.
But to me, every one of them is part of the same Momo.
I believe a man can be handsome and cute at the same time.
đź–¤Four Characters, One Visual Identityđź–¤
When I look at all four designs side by side, I can see that each of them came from a different direction.
Meiji is a witch who dreams.
Bibi is a woman who chooses her own kind of cute.
Wistaria is someone with a sense of beauty that's difficult to understand.
Momo is a man who holds the things he treasures dear.
The impressions I took from each of their voices eventually found their way into their faces, body proportions, and the shapes and colors of their outfits.
But I didn't set out to unify all four of them under a single theme. Their current appearances came about as I discovered what made each of them appealing.
I think you can see that same approach in their colors, too.
🤍 Meiji: Milk Ivory
đź©· Bibi: Vivid Pink
đź’š Wistaria: Mysteric Mint
đź’ś Momo: Candy Purple
They each have their own distinct color, yet when I put them together, they somehow look like they belong to the same world.
I feel that purple is one of the colors that ties them together.
It's not so much that I worked out the color scheme through careful theory. As I kept drawing the four of them together, I gradually found a combination that just felt right.
Their faces are all different, too.
Meiji is a witch with sleepy eyes that are just a little frightening.
Bibi is an urban, stylish woman whose upturned eyes and eye makeup make an impression.
Wistaria has gentle-looking, downturned eyes, yet somehow doesn't put you at ease.
Momo is a big man with strong eyebrows and sweet, gentle eyes.
Even though I draw them all in the same art style, the shapes of their eyes and eyebrows, and the placement of their facial features, give each of them a very different look.
Their eyelashes are all colorful, too, but that doesn't mean they're officially wearing colored mascara. I chose the colors that felt most natural to me for each of their faces.
The differences in their heights aren't simply about drawing some of them bigger than others, either.
How does each of them stand when they're together? What are they wearing, and what expressions do they have?
It's only when all those details come together that they begin to look like the four of them to me.
When I draw their appearances, I don't try to give every single detail a meaning from the beginning.
Sometimes, something I chose simply because it seemed to suit them turns out to connect with the impression I get from their voices. Sometimes, a detail I first drew purely as a visual feature becomes a clue to understanding who they are.
And no matter how many times I draw them, I still discover expressions I hadn't seen before.
I listen to the four of them sing, and I draw what they look like.
Little by little, the picture I have of them becomes clearer.
Their outfits and hairstyles may change in the future. New vocal modes might even make me feel that a different look suits them better than before.
But I don't think I'll see them as different people.
I'll simply have learned something new about the same four characters.
That's a feeling I hope to keep enjoying.
To me, their visual designs are also a record of my observations of the people who were born from their voices.
Article written September 20, 2026
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